For every $25 you donate to US Empowered – in cash, check, or online – you’ll receive an entry in your choice of two raffles; you can divide your entries among them as you like. One of the prizes is unique:

(1) $50 gift certificate to Jewell & the Beanstalk. Wholesome and delicious food, great atmosphere. There is nothing else like Jewell’s in Manchester (menu). (Actually, one entry per $5 for this raffle)

(2) Immortality through art

A black & white portrait drawing by me, from a photo of your choice

Charcoal on quality, 24×36 paper (or smaller if you’d prefer)

I’ll spend at least four hours on it

For reference, I spent about 2.5 hours on the male portrait and about an hour on the female. The former was from a live model, which explains why he isn’t smiling; you try to hold a smile for over two hours. Both pictures were taken with a cell phone camera, so the quality is not the best.

To enter, simply make a contribution and e-mail me your selections. I receive e-mail confirmations of online donations immediately and eventually receive confirmations of donations by check.

Although the raffle is a chance to have something special, personal, and unique in exchange for very little, it is only an incentive. This is really about US Empowered and the work they do developing mentors, programs, and other resources to help students in some our most at risk school systems get into and succeed at college. Please give generously.

The drawings, which will be November 9 – 30 days after the Chicago Marathon, which is my fundraising deadline.

On October 10, I’m running the Chicago Marathon in support of Urban Students Empowered. US Empowered helps underperforming high school students to prepare for, be accepted to, and succeed in college and trains teachers to lead its structured mentoring, education, and support program. Personally, I like that US Empowered is not a scholarship program focused on high-achievers. Instead, it leverages its limited resources to build a system that helps many students from low-income schools to enroll in and graduate from college. In addition to helping the individual students, the focus on schools with the lowest rates of college attendance maximizes the social and economic benefits for both the communities and the US as a whole: Help where the need is greatest.

I’m trying something new to help my fundraising efforts. I made business cards with info about See Rob Raise on one side and about the charity on the other. If you arrived at this site as a result of one of those cards, thanks for more than just humoring me by accepting it. I hope what you learn – about US Empowered and my larger goals – inspires you to make a contribution.

I’m running the Chicago Marathon on October 10 to support US Empowered, so it’s time to resurrect this blog to thank you for your generosity in supporting my past causes & tell you a little bit about the experiences. I’m headed out to do some fund raising shortly, so I’ll keep this brief and add more detail later.

The Cape Cod Getaway was a one or two day ride, with an option of riding 75 or 100 miles the first day and 75 miles if you continued the second day. My team was generously sponsored by FLIR, my employer at the time. My team mates, from left to right below, were Greg, myself, Joe, Cheryl, Ralph, and official FLIR Sport Princess, Kristin.

Greg, Rob Campbell, Joe, Cheryl, Ralph, Kristin

I had never ridden more than 30 miles before this, so of course I opted for the 100 the first day. I was able to stick with Ralph – who is a machine and trains with TriFury – most of the way. I struggled at the end but survived.

Joe, Kristin, Ralph, and myself stuck it out the second day, spending the night at the Maritime Academy just before crossing onto Cape Cod proper.

The Hardcore Four

Ralph and Joe got an early start. Kristin and I set out together and separated about half way. It was quite a bit harder the second day, and I was feeling something funny in my right foot. I’d had images of myself on the beach in Provincetown after the finish, but it was cloudy and cool and we were all ready to get home. Great time. But that foot just didn’t feel right.

I gave myself two weeks of no training to to recover from the foot injury, then went for a little run. It felt like it was one fire. I went to the doctor, was diagnosed with tendinitis (the one along the arch of the foot), and was prescribed no running and no riding with clips for five weeks. Didn’t he know I had a triathlon to train for? And race?!

Ralph had experience with injuries that he didn’t let fully heal and so constantly recurred, so he recommended following doctor’s orders. I was disappointed, but I did, hoping I’d feel dramatically better in time to run the New York City Triathlon in support of A Running Start. Unfortunately, I didn’t and had to bow out.

Still, what’s most important is the generosity of all of you in supporting the National MS Society and A Running Start. With your help, I raised $750 for NMSS and $1850 for A Running Start. My fund-raising page for A Running Start is still active, so if you’d like to make a donation, head on over. It’s a great program and it would be greatly appreciated and put to good use.

A Running Start is a young foundation with a mission of improving the lives of young East Africans through sport. The organization sponsors schools and training camps in Kenya and remote regions of Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda to identify and develop promising student athletes and to help them earn scholarships to US universities. It’s an unusual approach. Karl Keirstead, A Running Start’s founder, explains: “To really alter lives in Africa, an organization needs either a very large budget (which we don’t have), or needs to target fewer but high-impact individuals. Individuals who, by putting a bit of wind in their sail, can take off.” Instead of touching the lives of many people superficially, A Running Start changes the lives of a smaller number profoundly.

This is my first season of triathlon. Swim, bike, run. Easy. Most of us have been doing these things most of our lives. I learned to swim in elementary school at the Lawrence YWCA (once while waiting for our ride, my brother threatened, “Don’t tell anyone we’re going to the Y because they’ll see girls in the car and know we’re going to the YWCA.”) I followed the natural progression of tricycle (green with a pickup bed) to training wheels (on a hand me down) to three speed (with a banana seat and brakes that locked when you peddled backwards). And as kids, we need to be told not to run.

Most of us take for granted the ability to choose (or choose not) to go for a walk, a ride, or a run. Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body, making it increasingly difficult or impossible to do these or any physical activity. 14,000 people in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, 400,000 in the US, and 2.5 million worldwide suffer from MS. The National MS Society funds research into a cure and helps people with MS and their families move forward with their lives.